TELESCOPE ACCESSORIES
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- This is Chapter 11 of Tsula's Complete Video Guide to Becoming an Amateur Astronomer: Telescope Accessories. In Chapter 10, I covered eyepieces, diagonals, and filters and this chapter will cover other essential and non-essential accessories you might consider to improve your star gazing experience and telescope use.
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Super helpful info! Really great idea about the red light headlamp if going to a star party. I didn’t think about it being rude if I was to utilize my phones screen brightness
Thank you! I'm glad you found it useful. One time I was at a public viewing place and I could not get my dome light to turn off in my car. I was so embarrassed. I'm sure everyone there wanted to kill me.
I just want to thank you for all your effort to help those of us joining this hobby. I have been watching every beginning astronomy video on TH-cam. Yours seems to be one of the best to balance technical info and making it accessible to newbs, well thought out steps to advancement, and your informed and engaging personality. I just turned 60, a science and tool making background, and just my bought my first "proper" scope (8' dob up from my 4.5" dob). Your series has been invaluable in my amassing of all the aspects of this fascinating STEM hobby. Thank you so much.
That is such a nice comment. You made my day. I'm glad you have found it useful. Thank you for watching.
Tsula, love your videos! You are AWESOME! For the Telrad mount - I use the iphone dash-mount pads which aren’t glue or permanent but that material holds the Telrad base in place. I also use a velcro from Harbor Freight that I wrap around the OTA to secure the Telrad from falling off. This works and does not put sticky foam tape on the OTA. There are some other tricks with the velcro straps but too long for this comment. This works for me. Hope it helps. Thanks.
More details on velcro straps for Telrad bases: Cut the smartphone dash pad to match the foam tape dimensions of the Telrad base and place the pad and base on the OTA in correct location. Get some Velcro brand hook and loop velcro. Cut 2 pieces of the hook part to fit and adhere on the Telrad base across the top of the base on both ends of the base between the connection points for the Telrad. Get the $7 roll of velcro from Harbor Freight that has hook and loop on both sides. Connect the Harbor velcro loop (soft side)to the hook strip on the Telrad base and wrap it around the OTA taught and then press the velcro to the top of the Telrad base hook strip. The soft side or loop side of the velcro is facing and touching the OTA surface so it won’t harm it. You get a stable and secure Telrad base which is also easily removable if ever needed. Hope this helps.
Hi Tsula, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to make such informative and succinct videos. I just took delivery of my first telescope last week and I've found your channel to be an excellent resource.
I'm lucky enough to be living a short drive from a Bortle 2 Dark Sky Reserve in County Kerry, Ireland, so I can look forward to practice these new skills in an excellent environment.
Enjoy the dark skies and keep up the good work, it's very much appreciated.
Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear you are finding my channel useful. Cheers.
Thanks Tsula! So glad you are a part of the amateur astronomy community. I am learning a lot from you; appreciate you!
Thank you. That is a very nice comment.
Another informative video. Regarding eyepieces, I agree with Ed sting, “There is TeleVue and then there’s everything else.”
Thanks. I think the Explore Scientific eyepieces are comparable to Televue.
I use wil triton's sky atlas 2000, many many years of use
Patricia: Recently I decided I wanted a star atlas with magnitudes higher than 7 which is the extent covered by the Sky & Telescope Pocket Atlas (I think). So I bought Wil Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000 used on Amazon. This thing must be ancient. It is huge and from what I can tell it does not cover stars with magnitudes higher than 7. I could not find a date on it anywhere. Now I am wondering if there are different sky atlases and I accidentally got one that only covers up to magnitude 7. What magnitude stars does your Sky Atlas cover? Thank you.
so hard to believe you only have about 400 subs! keep up the amazing work, you deserve way more!
Thank you for your kind words.
Oh, and Stellarium Plus (about $20) has telescope FOV simulation and allows setting the Magnitude down to 25. I practice Star-hopping with it on cloudy, cold nights.
I was not aware of that. Thank you for all this useful information. I paid a lot more than $20 for Interstellarium, a wonderful two volume set for deep sky observing.
Stellarium is awesome hey? :-) especially convenient for comparing true fields with various user defined eyepieces in different telescopes, binoculars, etc. BTW Tsula, I too didn’t like double-sided tape on my tube for the Telrad. I’ve used large, linked tie wraps instead-not perfect but better than DS tape damage.
I like the carpet idea. My feet get so cold in winter. I have an old rug in the garage that will take seconds to throw down. Thanks for another interesting and informative video.
Thanks, Leon. It also works great for viewing meteor showers.
Down to earth, simple and outstanding!
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for this video I really appreciate it I'm going to get into visual astronomy with a dobsonian telescope
Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I made a whole video about using a Dobsonian that you might find useful:
th-cam.com/video/_3RvAWu7RPs/w-d-xo.html
I have a 10" Dobsonian that I love.
@@tsulasbigadventures gonna watch it right now 👍
I was waiting for you to mention an adjustable viewing chair! Definitely an underappreciated piece of gear. I'm loving this series of videos. Thanks for sharing your approach and perspective.
Thank you, John. I love my adjustable chair. I wish I could use it with my Meade.
Totally agree it's underappreciated! Eye pieces, filters, finders are so enticing the idea of investing in an adjustable chair is easily set aside. But after using one regularly for years, I think it's a must have accessory! Being able to sit comfortably still at the optimum level allows for prolonged gazing into the eye piece(s). You can catch those moments of clarity when looking at planets in between bouts of turbulent skies. You can take the time to soak in DSOs. You just can't do that of you're crouching, leaning over or stretching to line your eyes up with the eye piece.
Who makes the adjustable chair you have?@@tsulasbigadventures
@@denalaterza7703 It's called the Star Bound Observer's Chair. I bought it from B&H because they have free shipping.
Most planetarium apps like Stellarium have Night Vision mode whichs turns the app red with high contrast. Easy to use in the field!
That's good to know. I'm very fond of my S&T Pocket Atlas. So, I have never actually used Stellarium out in the field but like to use it inside the house while planning. No, I take that back; I used Stellarium out in the field on Monday! I was looking for 12P/Pons-Brooks with binoculars. It wasn't on my desk top computer version of Stellarium but it was on the phone version and that helped me to find Pons-Brooks.
Great comprehensive video. Hope you like your Telrad. Mine is about 25 years old and the removeable base is attached to my scope tube with double sided tape too. The Telrad is easily detactched and reattached at the base with minimal effort and remains fairly well calibrated. Ive not had any issues with the double sided tape failing to hold in 25 years.
Beat wishes and clear skies.
Thanks, Christopher. As you can see in the video I went ahead and attached it to my Meade with tape. I think it will be fine. Thank you for the recommendation.
Ive never had a reason to remove the mounting bracket from my scope. Yes, the tape seems permanent but a little bit of goo gone or bug and tar remover and patience will get that bracket off of your scope. Permanent damage will always occur when drilling holes in order to mount accessories
Ive recently purchased some mounting brackets for red dot finders on my ETX. They used a very compliant and almost gooey double sided tape. What a nightmare this stuff is. It is so gooey that maintaining a solid connection is impossible and the red dot looses alignment not from the finder but from the bracket to scope connection.
Hope you are enjoying the benefits of the Telrad as much as I do.
@@christopherhamm1574 OK. If I ever have the need to take the tape off I will use goo gone but I think it's there to stay as I do like it. I like that you don't have to get your eye very close like you do with the red dot. Thanks again.
Careful Tsula, its not the best idea to have your telescope on the mount without any counter weights. Those EQ6R Pros are very saddle heavy even without a telescope. Nice video btw, great location!
Thank you. I noticed that too late. Thankfully it was just a little 51mm refractor I was going to take some pictures with later. I actually have a hard time balancing that Recat with one counter weight. I have to push it all the way to the very top of the counterweight shaft.
great
You've probably found out now that the telrad is on a base that separates From the device. Easy off and on. I love mine, still the best of the "red dot" imo
Book: I love my telrad but the last one I bought the tape was so cheap that it came off and I tried to buy some Gorilla two sided tape and tape it on with that but the darn thing just won't stay on my telescope. So I had to use a red dot on that one. But, I agree with you that telrads are great.
Done😊
First
If you like splitting double stars and are in need of a new star atlas I would highly recommend the Cambridge Double Star Atlas by Bruce MacEvoy and of course Wil Tirion. It covers over 2500 double stars from the Washington Double Star database kept and updated by the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC, but it was made with amateur astronomers and smaller telescopes in mind and 80% of the double stars can be viewed by 150mm or 6" telescopes or smaller and all of them can be seen with 200mm or 8" telescopes. It has an excellent atlas down to 8 magnitude stars and the double stars are 7.75 magnitude or larger with the secondary stars going as small as 13 magnitude.
Thank you for the recommendation. I will look for it. I love double stars.
@@tsulasbigadventures You're welcome and thank you for your tips and help.
Hey where did get your JWST shirt?
I bought it from things of the stars dot com
I noticed you left out binoviewers. From your videos, it appears you mostly enjoy visual astronomy. IMHO Binoviewers are a game changer! They work great on CATs and retractors. The moon is amazing with both eyes.
I thought about including them because yes, everything is better with both eyes but I've never actually used them. I wonder if the interpupillary distance would be close enough for me.
@@tsulasbigadventures Several good manufacturers to choose from and the ones I've had and have get the IP pretty tight. I suspect the gerth of the eye pieces might be a factor (thinking of my 24mm Panoptics), but there's such a huge variety of eye pieces out there you should be able to avoid that problem.
When I was debating trying them years ago I did a quick experiment. I went out with my binoculars and alternated observing with both eyes, then one eye. That convinced me to take the plung. Had to sell some nice 2" eye pieces to offset the cost, but when the arrived....first light blew me away!
....looking forward to seeing your video after you've obtained some 😀
@@bbcoltrane OK. I'll look into it. When I was looking to buy some astronomy binoculars I looked into a pair of 100mm binoculars but the IP was horrible and wouldn't work for me. So I never looked into it again. But if I could find one that gets pretty small I would love to try it out. Thanks.
Tsula, if you have a Dobsonian and don't own a laser collimator, you haven't lived! It makes collimating so easy and accurate. It's like a hot knife through butter. Makes it child's play. For owners of a Dobsonian, I would rank it in importance even over eyepieces.
My goodness. I guess I will need to get one! Is there one that you recommend?
@@tsulasbigadventures Anything around $20
@@msroper5287 Well then! I am currently still using my collimation cap to collimate but your comment certainly gives me pause on getting a laser collimator. Again, thank you for your thoughtful comments.
I got a telrad but I used two straps to hold it on the telescope. If I want to move it I just loosen the straps and place it on a different scope. It means I don't have to buy several bases that remain permanently attached to the scope. Also, beware of B&H Photo. They ripped me off. Horrid customer service!
Well, I guess since I already used the tape I will have to buy a bunch of bases but I guess I won't buy them from B&H! Sorry to hear they ripped you off.
@@tsulasbigadventures Any time someone brings it up (B&H Photo that is) I feel obligated to mention it. The thing about the Telrad is I just wonder why it has to be so big. Seems it could be at least half that size or smaller.
@@lornaz1975 Well, thanks for letting me know. I was wondering why the Telrad is so big too. I guess because unlike the red dot which is just a small dot, the telrad shows three huge concentric circles so it needs a longer light path for the reticle but I'm just guessing.
Excellent video Tsula Thanks for sharing. I’m thinking of buying a star gazing adjustable chair. Do you mind sharing more info on your chair such as manufacturer, make, model, price and where to purchase it. Why did you select this particular chair over others that are available. Pros and cons of the chair, etc. thanks so much. Ed
Hi Ed. Thanks. I bought mine from Highpointscientific.com and it is called: Star Bound Adjustable Observing Chair - Black - SB-BLACK. They are expensive though. This particular chair was $249 and here is the link: www.highpointscientific.com/shop?q=chair
Hi Tsula. Thanks so much for providing the information on the chair. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Really appreciate your help and I very much enjoy the content you share with us on TH-cam. Great job! Ed
@@edf2953 Thanks, Ed. Enjoy your new chair!
@@msroper5287 Well, as I mentioned in the video, I can no longer use it with my 12" SCT because it's on the Wheeley Bar and too high for a chair but it seems rather comfortable to use with the Dobsonian as long as I don't try to adjust it while sitting in it.